HARDWARE: End of the Road
by hthrun
Summary: Followup to On the Run.


HARDWARE 109: End of the Road (by Henry Thrun)1

HARDWARE 110: End of the Road Part 2 (by Henry Thrun)3

HARDWARE 111: End of the Road Part 3 (by Henry Thrun)5

HARDWARE 109: End of the Road (by Henry Thrun) 

I woke up and found myself in the bed. "Good morning!" Felicia said cheerfully as she walked out of the bathroom in a really nice dress. "I had to get ready so I moved you from the tub to the bed. I hope I didn't disturb you at all."  
"No, I slept like a rock. You look great! What's the occasion?"  
"Well, you took me to a place I enjoyed last night, so I thought I'd do the same for you. It's Sunday and I thought we could go to church."  
"Really?" I was quite surprised.  
"Sure, why not?"  
"Ah, cool! You have one picked out?"  
"I just figured we'd go to the first one we find. Does it make a difference?"  
"We're actually not too far from one I've visited before that I like. How's that sound?"  
"Doesn't matter a lick to me. You better get ready."  
"Actually, you should probably change yourself. We'll have to bike there. Plus, it's a rather informal church."  
"Yeah, this probably won't travel very well..."

We both changed to casual clothes and checked out of the hotel. Once we were out of sight, I morphed into the Black Cat Cycle and we took off. We were already in the Midwest and the pastor of the church I was heading to was a friend of my pastor in New York.

I morphed back to human form and downloaded another drive to use a Hardware arm. I had been working on developing an arm that would seem more and more real. Felicia and I walked a few blocks until we got there. It was just a small, ordinary looking building. If it wasn't for the sign you'd never know it was a church.  
"It's a good thing they don't start until 10:30," I said as we entered with a few minutes to spare.  
"I can't believe I woke up so early." Felicia said as we walked in. She stopped as she saw the congregation and whispered in my ear. "Jake, we're trying not to draw attention to ourselves, remember?"  
"Yeah..." I whispered back.  
"Then maybe you shouldn't have brought me to an all black church..."  
"What are you, racist?" I joked. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. I've brought white friends from Minnesota here on occasion." We sat down on some chairs in the back row.  
"Are they going to recognize you?"  
"Nah, I don't think..."  
"Hey, Jake!" someone called out as he walked up. "How's it going?"  
"Crap," muttered Cat.  
"Hey, Keith! Good to see ya," I replied as I stood up to shake hands. Keith was dressed in baggy pants and a t-shirt with a bandana on his head. "This is my friend, Felicia."  
"Hey, Felicia, nice to meet you," Keith said as he extended his hand.  
"Ah... the pleasure's all mine," she responded with a worried look as she shook his hand.  
"So is this the girl you kidnapped?"  
"What?"  
"Just joking, man! It was all over the news after you broke out of the hospital. They were saying you kidnapped her and fled. But that's the media for you. So what is going on?"  
"It sounds like you knew about Hardware for a while," Felicia said.  
"You bet! I was in a gang in the Twin Cities before Jake came along. He busted me while we were both still in high school. But we stayed in touch all this time."  
"To be honest, we're both on the run. It's all this registration garbage. But I didn't kidnap Felicia, it was a joint decision."  
"Actually," Felicia cut in, "I kidnapped Jake." She turned to me. "You know, maybe we should get going..."  
"Nah, it's cool," said Keith. "I won't tell anyone. Stay for the service and maybe we can get lunch after."  
"I think I'll have to take a rain check on the lunch. What do you say about staying for the service, Cat?"  
"I suppose it's too late now, anyway..."  
The pastor then announced we would get started. First several people went up and gave testimonies. After that, we had praise and worship. Cat just kind of stood there so I started teasing her a little. Once she started singing she began getting into it a bit. After praise and worship the pastor shared his message and we finished up with announcements and prayer requests.

We got out quickly, saying good bye to Keith quick as we left. Once we were on the road again, I asked Felicia, "So, what did you think?"  
"Well, to be honest it didn't suck as bad as I thought it would."  
"But it did suck some?"  
"Oh, no! I mean, it was pretty good. I just prefer living on the wild side, you know?"  
"We Christians can still get pretty wild! Especially when fighting Animax or the Strategist."  
"Yeah, I guess you're not as stuffy and boring as I usually think of religious people. And everyone there seemed pretty carefree..."  
"You should check out the church I go to back in New York when we return."  
"Sure, I guess I could... I wonder when we'll ever get back..."  
"Hopefully this will all blow over soon..."

We went on for a while until we got out into the country side again, just planning our next stop and enjoying the scenery. We found a rest stop and decided to take a little break. Felicia went to the bathroom and I looked to see if there was anything good in the vending machine.  
"I thought you two were never going to stop," a dark voice said from behind me. I spun around to see a ghastly face with red eyes and a wicked smile.  
"SINISTER!"

HARDWARE 110: End of the Road Part 2 (by Henry Thrun) 

Mister Sinister quickly stabbed me with a syringe, injecting some kind of fluid in me. He then swatted me to the side. In pain, I stumbled back up, "How did you find me?"  
"My little friend here has been trailing you for a while," Sinister replied as a fierce looking mutated bird swooped down and landed on his shoulder. "I just had to finish up a little work in the lab and wait for the right time to greet you."  
"That's one of Animax's birds!"  
"Yes, Animax does have some impressive work. I trained him well!"  
I popped my current drive out of my forehead and reached into my carrying case to pull out another one. Sinister blasted me with an energy bolt, knocking me to the ground. "Don't bother resisting. The sedative I gave you will soon knock you out."  
The force wasn't lethal but I was having a hard time moving. "Not if I'm Hardware!" I said as I popped in a new drive, morphed into Hardware, and jumped back up.  
"I may need you alive," Sinister said. Another one of his birds then flew out, holding a weakened Felicia in it's talons. "But I don't need her at all!"  
"Let her go!"  
"Surrender and I will grant you your wish."  
"What do you want with me?"  
"The fact that you don't know is the best part," Sinister laughed. "So what do you say?"  
"Ok, I'll turn back to normal and toss you my jump drives. Then you let her go and I will go with you."  
"Jake... don't!" Felicia was barely able to say.  
"Deal," said Sinister. I morphed back to human and threw my case of jump drives to Sinister. I then fell to the ground as the sedative continued to take affect. Sinister nodded to the bird and it dropped Felicia. He then started walking over to me, with one bird on each shoulder. "Wise move."  
"I thought so too," I replied as I ignited the self-destruct I had installed in the jump drive case. It exploded in Sinister's hand. He screamed in pain as he ignited in a blaze and had chunks of flesh blown away.  
"You... will... pay!" Sinister said to me as he crawled on all fours. The birds lied on the ground, totally fried. Sinister started regenerating, but was too weak to continue fighting. He then teleported out of sight.  
I crawled over to Felicia. "Felicia?"  
"Jake. Are you ok?"  
"Yes. Are you?"  
"I... think so," she said as she closed her eyes. My eyes closed as well and we both laid there unconscious.

Some of Tony Stark's men were still checking out the Xavier Institute. They all got together for a meeting after one got a transmission. After the meeting, he approached Valerie Cooper. "Miss Cooper, we are done here. Thank you for your cooperation."  
"Of course. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you in the future." After the men left the grounds, Valerie summoned Cyclops. They met with Emma Frost.  
"What did you get, Emma?" Valerie asked.  
"They found Jake and have brought him in. He was attacked by Sinister."  
"Blast it!" Cyclops yelled. "Now what?"  
"I guess now we wait," Cooper replied, "and hope Sinister didn't get what he needed..."

I woke up in a prison cell, my head throbbing. I was strapped down really tightly and there were two guards standing outside. "Sir, he's awake," one of them spoke into a walky talky.  
Shortly after, Tony Stark walked in. "Open it," he ordered one of the guards. He walked inside. "Hello, Jake."  
"Tony. How's Felicia?"  
"'How's Felicia?' She would be fine if you didn't kidnap her and force her to help you escape! You're done, Jake! With all these charges against you, you're looking at life. Your trial is tomorrow." He then turned and walked out of the cell.  
"Hey Tony," I called. The guards closed the cell behind him. Tony turned back to look at me with a scowl on his face. "Your shiner looks much better!" And Stark stormed off.

Elsewhere, Felicia woke up to find herself in a hospital. Peter was there. "Felicia! How do you feel?"  
"Could be better... Jake! Where is he!"?  
"He's in a cell, recovering."  
"Can I see him?"  
"No, and you probably won't be able to for a long time. He's going to trial tomorrow and they're going to keep you in here to recuperate, so you won't be testifying. Though I doubt you'll need to with all the charges against him."  
"Oh no..."  
"Felicia, Tony sent me here to get a briefing from you over this whole ordeal. He wants your account of the events with Jake." Peter closed a notebook he was holding. "But off the record, tell me what really happened."  
"What... what do you mean?"  
"Tony's convinced that Jake is completely at fault, but he's blinded by his anger. There's no way Jake would have been able to slip past the Avengers' top security, especially after having lost a limb and carrying a prisoner. So Tony believes Jake forced you, a master at breaking in and out of places, to help him. There are two problems I see with that, though. First, Jake was in no condition to force you to do anything. Second, why surrender in the first place to just break out with a prisoner but do nothing else except run? So, Felicia, what really happened?"  
"Pete... I can't talk right now. Please, can I have some time alone?"  
Peter sighed. "Ok. I'll tell Tony you're in no condition to talk."  
"Thanks, Spider." And Peter left the room. Felicia looked around and found the phone. She pulled it down to make a call. "Hi, Thomas, it's Felicia."  
"Felicia!" Thomas Fireheart, aka Puma, replied. "I heard about what happened. Are you ok?"  
"I'm fine..."  
"I would have come to visit you at the hospital, but I've been really busy..."  
"That's ok..."  
"Would you like to get together some time after you get out?"  
"Thomas, that's why I called. I... I think we should stop seeing each other."  
"What?"  
"It's just... This relationship's not going anywhere. We both know that..."  
"This is about Parker, isn't it? I knew it..."  
"No, no. This has nothing to do with Peter. I'm... I'm just rethinking what I want to do with my life is all. I'm sorry. But we were just goofing around, you know? It wasn't anything serious, right?"  
"Yeah, you're right. Well... I guess I'll see you around."  
"Thanks, Tom. I'm sorry."  
"Yeah, me too." And Fireheart hung up. Felicia laid her head back on her pillow and turned out the lights as tears rolled down the sides of her face.

HARDWARE 111: End of the Road Part 3 (by Henry Thrun) 

I just laid there in the bed. It was getting late and I felt exhausted, but I couldn't sleep. I was already going to be on trial tomorrow. Stark must have lawyers working on pushing this through as fast as possible. And I was worried about Felicia, whether or not she would receive and punishment for all of this. I should have stopped it right away, as soon as I was feeling better. I knew it was wrong and now we were paying for it. I just prayed "Oh God, I am so sorry..."

I suddenly noticed a strange goo collecting on the ceiling. This was only a temporary holding cell and once I was convicted I would go to a much more sophisticated one. The ooze must have been getting in through the cracks. Just as long as it wasn't right above and dripping on me, I didn't care enough to say anything.

It kept growing faster, though. It started crawling in my direction and I then realized what it was. A symbiote! The guards had their backs to me and when they looked they didn't notice it on the ceiling. As more of it came the colors became more profound and I recognized it as Toxin! Toxin slowly stretched along the corners of the ceiling and walls in a thin strand, making himself as tough to see as possible if the guards turned around.

I was anxiously waiting for him to come bond with me. His host, Patrick Mulligan, was a friend of mine from the police force. But why wasn't Toxin with him? Could this actually have been another symbiote offspring? I was wondering if I should alert the guards, but figured I would take the chance that this was indeed Toxin.

Patrick was having a really rough time when he first bonded with Toxin. He was afraid to be around his wife, Mina, and son, Edward. But not too long ago he met with his wife and revealed the truth to her. After overcoming the initial shock (which lasted quite a while), Mina decided to start working things out with Patrick. They were still living apart but they were making progress and Patrick was finally a part of Edward's life.  
Having come out, Patrick also rejoined the police force. That had been rough for him as well. He had to start over from a lower position and nobody wanted to be his partner. The Civil War was actually a blessing for him. With the battle going on between superheroes, he took one of the leads on Civil War related police duties.  
But where was he now?

The symbiote creeped up the leg of my bed and starter flowing onto me. As he bonded, he was able to hide himself and remain unseen, just as all symbiotes can do with their hosts. When he oozed on my forehead, it felt kind of like I was downloading a drive. It was like he was oozing inside my head and into my brain.

And then I could hear him speak, though he didn't actually speak out loud. "I made it! Thank goodness I made it!" It was definitely Toxin.  
"Toxin?" I was somehow able to telepathically communicate back with him. I didn't know why or how, but it came really naturally. "What's going on? Where's Pat?" And then I realized I knew everything Toxin knew.  
"Jake! I didn't know if I'd be able to make it without a host! I didn't know that I could even _survive_ without Pat! Jake, we need to help him!"  
"Yes, I see that now."

Toxin's memories were as clear as mine. Patrick was stationed outside of the prison. They did this when I was brought in to utilize Toxin's powers if necessary.  
Patrick heard a woman screaming from between some buildings. He called for back-up and ran over to see what was going on. When he arrived, there was no woman. Carnage came swinging from above and grabbed Patrick. At the height of his swing, he released his symbiotic webbing and hurled them both to the top of another building.  
Toxin unleashed himself and broke away from Carnage's grip. "Hello, son!" Carnage cackled. He was much bigger than he used to be. Even bigger than Toxin.  
"CARNAGE! I thought you were dead! You and Kasady!"  
"I'm not Kasady, son."  
"How did you get back to Earth?"  
"I wish I could tell you, my boy!" Carnage laughed as he flung sharp symbiotic daggers at Toxin. Toxin quickly leapt but got hit by one of them. Toxin shot some of his webbing back at Carnage while in mid air. He made a direct hit, pinning Carnage to the top of the building. But Carnage ripped through the webbing with one of his blades.  
Toxin charged while and grabbed Carnage's face. "Let's see who's in there!" And Toxin began to pull.  
"Sounds good to me!" Carnage replied as he lifted up Toxin and slammed him to the ground, keeping his face intact.  
"How... how did you get so strong?" Toxin gasped in shock.  
"Wheaties, my lad!" he replied with a sinister grin showing all his teeth. He then reached down, grabbed Toxin, and started pulling him off of Patrick.  
Toxin struggled to stay intact, but Carnage was too much. Toxin took one final swing at Carnage and knocked him down to the edge of the building. But Carnage had a good hold of Toxin and he came ripping all the way off of Pat. Carnage was shaken up and Toxin, also shaken up, oozed through his grip. But Carnage's hand was too close to the edge and Toxin fell all the way to the ground below. He then slithered out of sight.

I was the closest person Toxin knew and he was easily able to get back to me with his tracking abilities. "Pat's still back there. We need to save him!"


End file.
